I have several unreported tasks. i seem to remember doing a "network communication" in the past and it would report tasks.... i recently started using bonic again but all the tasks that have been completed have not been reported.

Why would you want to? Doing it manually and frequently can cause unnecessary load on the servers. You won't get credits faster doing it manually so I fail to see the interest in it.

But if you click on the Projects tab in BOINC, select a project, then click on the Update button, it will force communications with the project (including reporting any completed work and requesting new work if applicable).